Ivan Fischer, Budapest Festival Orchestra Iván Fischer is founder and Music Director of the Budapest Festival Orchestra. The partnership between Iván Fischer and his Budapest Festival Orchestra has proved to be one of the greatest success stories in the past three decades of classical music.

What would it have been like to hear Beethoven’s seventh symphony at the first performance? How did listeners react to hearing the endless repetition of the first movement’s dotted rhythm? Would they have been shocked to hear the melody of the second movement which repeats the same note twelve times? How did they respond to the finale’s obsessive rhythmical drive which must have seemed like the rock music of the nineteenth century? It's ‘exciting’ to hear this well known symphony together with contemporary works which may have been performed in the same year. Wilhelm Wilms followed the classical tradition of Haydn and Mozart with some innovative moments. His 5th symphony, composed a few years earlier had been published during the time when Beethoven worked on his masterpiece. The most popular composer of the day was undoubtedly Rossini. He created a completely new vocal style that influenced many other musicians. The slow movement of Weber’s clarinet concerto for example sounds more operatic than instrumental in character. This was the environment in which Beethoven developed his strikingly original ideas. It must have been quite an ‘ear opener’ to hear a symphony start with gentle wind chamber music supported by massive accents of the rest of the orchestra. What a contrast! Iván Fischer On 8 and 12 December 1813, two charity concerts took place in Vienna during which Ludwig von Beethoven conducted some new orchestral works. In the fall of that year the combined Austrian and Bavarian troops had beaten the French troops in the decisive battle at Hanau, ringing in a long expected beginning of the end of the Napoleontic wars. It had been a terribly bloody battle with many victims on both sides. The proceeds of the two concerts accrued to the widows and orphans of the fallen Austrian soldiers. It is understandable that in the euphoria of that moment, the Austrian victory on the French, Beethoven’s works that were performed were considered victory music. For one of the pieces, the Symphony nr.7 in A-major, that is an apt description. It is a work with a positive, optimistic, (.......)

Quotes:

As a totality, the disc is consequently bitty, but the performance of the Seventh ranks, without question, among the greatest ever recorded. With the Budapest Festival Orchestra playing as if their lives depended on it, it's superbly articulated, thrillingly elated and emotionally exhausting. Weber, on first hearing the work, wondered whether its composer was insane, and for once you understand why. Utterly compelling. The Guardian *****

A spring-heeled conductor such as Iván Fischer was born for Beethoven's Seventh Symphony, and this account with his Budapest Festival Orchestra is a bubbling delight. Smile at his teasing with the introduction's transition; bask in the allegretto's light grace; dance and leap with the tumbling finale. Fischer whips up tremendous excitement, but still gives us playing of shining finesse. Rossini, Weber and a lesser light, Wilms, offer novel fillers. The Times Online

Ivan Fischer and the Budapest Festival Orchestra give us a brilliantly realized Beethoven 7th; I can't really say that I've ever heard anything by this orchestra and conductor that I wasn't thoroughly impressed with. As usual, Channel Classics provides a spectacular Meitner/Pyramix-based DSD recording, and the sound is absolutely to die for. Only the oddly truncated program choices keep this disc from getting five stars. Highly recommended. Audiophile Audition

Ivan Fischer conducts the modern-instrument Budapest Festival Orchestra in a stylish, comfortable, beautifully played and recorded Seventh symphony. Do we need these extra pieces by Rossini, Weber and Wilms to realize just how fierce and serious Beethoven seemed in his own time? Maybe, but the adagio from the Weber concerto is, in any case, seriously nice to encounter. The Philadelphia Inquirer

(…) Ivan Fischer's Beethoven Seventh surely ranks with the best among recent performances. The first-movement introduction isn't too slow, and the allegro is a delightful romp full of arresting wind detail. The Allegretto stands among the most beautifully paced and balanced since Szell's. In the Scherzo, Fischer manages a swift basic pace that achieves the minor miracle of never sounding mechanical, while the finale has athleticism and unusual textural transparency at a very lively tempo.... it doesn't get much better." Classics Today.com

(...) The Weber is beautifully played. The Rossini is great fun. The Wilms finale has spirit and ingenuity. Fanfare

(...) An outstanding Beethoven Seventh: The orchestra is wonderful, with particularly warm strings. American Record Guide

(…) The musicians spare us no blushes with their startlingly bold interjections and unsettling outburst of searing protest, spectacularly caught by Channel's engineers in SACS surround sound. (…) (…) Wispelwey retains his philosophical and expressive composure, setting his small voice against the might of a symphonic orchestra in full cry (…) and the result is one of the most deeply moving accounts of a Shostakovitch score I have heard in a long time (…)

Details

What would it have been like to hear Beethoven’s seventh symphony at the first performance? How did listeners react to hearing the endless repetition of the first movement’s dotted rhythm? Would they have been shocked to hear the melody of the second movement which repeats the same note twelve times? How did they respond to the finale’s obsessive rhythmical drive which must have seemed like the rock music of the nineteenth century? It's ‘exciting’ to hear this well known symphony together with contemporary works which may have been performed in the same year. Wilhelm Wilms followed the classical tradition of Haydn and Mozart with some innovative moments. His 5th symphony, composed a few years earlier had been published during the time when Beethoven worked on his masterpiece. The most popular composer of the day was undoubtedly Rossini. He created a completely new vocal style that influenced many other musicians. The slow movement of Weber’s clarinet concerto for example sounds more operatic than instrumental in character. This was the environment in which Beethoven developed his strikingly original ideas. It must have been quite an ‘ear opener’ to hear a symphony start with gentle wind chamber music supported by massive accents of the rest of the orchestra. What a contrast! Iván Fischer On 8 and 12 December 1813, two charity concerts took place in Vienna during which Ludwig von Beethoven conducted some new orchestral works. In the fall of that year the combined Austrian and Bavarian troops had beaten the French troops in the decisive battle at Hanau, ringing in a long expected beginning of the end of the Napoleontic wars. It had been a terribly bloody battle with many victims on both sides. The proceeds of the two concerts accrued to the widows and orphans of the fallen Austrian soldiers. It is understandable that in the euphoria of that moment, the Austrian victory on the French, Beethoven’s works that were performed were considered victory music. For one of the pieces, the Symphony nr.7 in A-major, that is an apt description. It is a work with a positive, optimistic, (.......)

What would it have been like to hear Beethoven’s seventh symphony at the first performance? How did listeners react to hearing the endless repetition of the first movement’s dotted rhythm? Would they have been shocked to hear the melody of the second movement which repeats the same note twelve times? How did they respond to the finale’s obsessive rhythmical drive which must have seemed like the rock music of the nineteenth century? It's ‘exciting’ to hear this well known symphony together with contemporary works which may have been performed in the same year. Wilhelm Wilms followed the classical tradition of Haydn and Mozart with some innovative moments. His 5th symphony, composed a few years earlier had been published during the time when Beethoven worked on his masterpiece. The most popular composer of the day was undoubtedly Rossini. He created a completely new vocal style that influenced many other musicians. The slow movement of Weber’s clarinet concerto for example sounds more operatic than instrumental in character. This was the environment in which Beethoven developed his strikingly original ideas. It must have been quite an ‘ear opener’ to hear a symphony start with gentle wind chamber music supported by massive accents of the rest of the orchestra. What a contrast! Iván Fischer On 8 and 12 December 1813, two charity concerts took place in Vienna during which Ludwig von Beethoven conducted some new orchestral works. In the fall of that year the combined Austrian and Bavarian troops had beaten the French troops in the decisive battle at Hanau, ringing in a long expected beginning of the end of the Napoleontic wars. It had been a terribly bloody battle with many victims on both sides. The proceeds of the two concerts accrued to the widows and orphans of the fallen Austrian soldiers. It is understandable that in the euphoria of that moment, the Austrian victory on the French, Beethoven’s works that were performed were considered victory music. For one of the pieces, the Symphony nr.7 in A-major, that is an apt description. It is a work with a positive, optimistic, (.......)

Ivan Fischer, Budapest Festival Orchestra Iván Fischer is founder and Music Director of the Budapest Festival Orchestra. The partnership between Iván Fischer and his Budapest Festival Orchestra has proved to be one of the greatest success stories in the past three decades of classical music.

What would it have been like to hear Beethoven’s seventh symphony at the first performance? How did listeners react to hearing the endless repetition of the first movement’s dotted rhythm? Would they have been shocked to hear the melody of the second movement which repeats the same note twelve times? How did they respond to the finale’s obsessive rhythmical drive which must have seemed like the rock music of the nineteenth century? It's ‘exciting’ to hear this well known symphony together with contemporary works which may have been performed in the same year. Wilhelm Wilms followed the classical tradition of Haydn and Mozart with some innovative moments. His 5th symphony, composed a few years earlier had been published during the time when Beethoven worked on his masterpiece. The most popular composer of the day was undoubtedly Rossini. He created a completely new vocal style that influenced many other musicians. The slow movement of Weber’s clarinet concerto for example sounds more operatic than instrumental in character. This was the environment in which Beethoven developed his strikingly original ideas. It must have been quite an ‘ear opener’ to hear a symphony start with gentle wind chamber music supported by massive accents of the rest of the orchestra. What a contrast! Iván Fischer On 8 and 12 December 1813, two charity concerts took place in Vienna during which Ludwig von Beethoven conducted some new orchestral works. In the fall of that year the combined Austrian and Bavarian troops had beaten the French troops in the decisive battle at Hanau, ringing in a long expected beginning of the end of the Napoleontic wars. It had been a terribly bloody battle with many victims on both sides. The proceeds of the two concerts accrued to the widows and orphans of the fallen Austrian soldiers. It is understandable that in the euphoria of that moment, the Austrian victory on the French, Beethoven’s works that were performed were considered victory music. For one of the pieces, the Symphony nr.7 in A-major, that is an apt description. It is a work with a positive, optimistic, (.......)

Quotes:

As a totality, the disc is consequently bitty, but the performance of the Seventh ranks, without question, among the greatest ever recorded. With the Budapest Festival Orchestra playing as if their lives depended on it, it's superbly articulated, thrillingly elated and emotionally exhausting. Weber, on first hearing the work, wondered whether its composer was insane, and for once you understand why. Utterly compelling. The Guardian *****

A spring-heeled conductor such as Iván Fischer was born for Beethoven's Seventh Symphony, and this account with his Budapest Festival Orchestra is a bubbling delight. Smile at his teasing with the introduction's transition; bask in the allegretto's light grace; dance and leap with the tumbling finale. Fischer whips up tremendous excitement, but still gives us playing of shining finesse. Rossini, Weber and a lesser light, Wilms, offer novel fillers. The Times Online

Ivan Fischer and the Budapest Festival Orchestra give us a brilliantly realized Beethoven 7th; I can't really say that I've ever heard anything by this orchestra and conductor that I wasn't thoroughly impressed with. As usual, Channel Classics provides a spectacular Meitner/Pyramix-based DSD recording, and the sound is absolutely to die for. Only the oddly truncated program choices keep this disc from getting five stars. Highly recommended. Audiophile Audition

Ivan Fischer conducts the modern-instrument Budapest Festival Orchestra in a stylish, comfortable, beautifully played and recorded Seventh symphony. Do we need these extra pieces by Rossini, Weber and Wilms to realize just how fierce and serious Beethoven seemed in his own time? Maybe, but the adagio from the Weber concerto is, in any case, seriously nice to encounter. The Philadelphia Inquirer

(…) Ivan Fischer's Beethoven Seventh surely ranks with the best among recent performances. The first-movement introduction isn't too slow, and the allegro is a delightful romp full of arresting wind detail. The Allegretto stands among the most beautifully paced and balanced since Szell's. In the Scherzo, Fischer manages a swift basic pace that achieves the minor miracle of never sounding mechanical, while the finale has athleticism and unusual textural transparency at a very lively tempo.... it doesn't get much better." Classics Today.com

(...) The Weber is beautifully played. The Rossini is great fun. The Wilms finale has spirit and ingenuity. Fanfare

(...) An outstanding Beethoven Seventh: The orchestra is wonderful, with particularly warm strings. American Record Guide

(…) The musicians spare us no blushes with their startlingly bold interjections and unsettling outburst of searing protest, spectacularly caught by Channel's engineers in SACS surround sound. (…) (…) Wispelwey retains his philosophical and expressive composure, setting his small voice against the might of a symphonic orchestra in full cry (…) and the result is one of the most deeply moving accounts of a Shostakovitch score I have heard in a long time (…)